


Rescue

by babywarg (morphaileffect)



Series: DrPepperony Prompts and Fics [2]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, Gen, Other, Outer Space, Pre-Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-13
Updated: 2019-10-13
Packaged: 2020-12-14 01:56:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,020
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21007811
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/morphaileffect/pseuds/babywarg
Summary: [Alternate Infinity War] Pepper dons the experimental Rescue armor and follows Tony into space, where she finds not only Tony, but Peter Parker and a severely tortured Doctor Strange.





	Rescue

**Author's Note:**

  * For [TheLadyStrange](https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheLadyStrange/gifts).

> Based on a prompt from mistressstrange on Tumblr: "What if Pepper went with Tony through the portal and followed them to the donut ship. Carefully soothing Stephen after his torture."
> 
> This is actually pepperony, potentially pre-drpepperony. And Pepper didn’t join Tony and Peter on the donut ship on the get-go, but instead found a way to track them down.
> 
> This AU is set after Tony and Stephen agree to head to Titan; imagines Stephen didn’t recover as quickly from Ebony Maw’s interrogation as he did in IW.
> 
> Also, imagines the Rescue armor’s initial AI to be TADASHI. Because of Big Hero 6 and Tadashi’s affinity for healing tech 😆

She didn’t have much time left.

_“Power down to 20%,”_ the gentle voice that called itself TADASHI said with muted urgency into her ear.

Dread flooded into her.

But the only words that occurred to her were:

_Keep going._

Tony was out there. Tony needed her.

Tony had built her a goddamn suit so she could use it to fly across space in order to save people in distress.

And if she was going to die trying to save one person - it would be the person who made the suit. The person she could not live without.

Despite her condition, no way she was leaving her fiancé to die out in space alone.

She couldn’t have lived with the knowledge of not even having tried.

***

She was only down to 10% when the Q-ship finally came into her field of vision.

The Q-ship. Where Tony’s homing signal was located.

She was laughing in relief, when she got the first clear audio transmission from Tony. And it yelled into her ear:

_“What the hell do you think you’re doing??”_

She grimaced, replied, “Saving you, you inconsiderate jerk! What, you thought I was going to sit around waiting for you when I have this awesome suit?”

_“That awesome suit is truly awesome, honey, but it’s not built for long-distance space travel. We’re billions of miles away, Pep, how did you even - “_

Pepper smirked. “I guess you forgot. Stark Industries was developing warp technology for our space exploration arm. It was highly experimental, but our head of research, Dr. Chua, helped me out with a portable version. She said it would either work or I would disintegrate into space dust.” Pepper chuckled mirthlessly. “Guess it worked.”

There was a tense silence, then a chuckle on the other end of the line.

_“You’re a marvel,”_ she heard. _“But even if it worked, it can only work once. It’ll need an enormous amount of energy. More energy than I’ve packed into your suit.”_

And barely a second after that, she heard TADASHI’s voice again:

_“Power down to 5%. Some features will be disabled. Please recharge immediately.”_

One of the features that was disabled appeared to be the thrusters.

“Tony,” she breathed into the comms, “my power’s out. I can’t - I can’t move.”

_“Wait there, honey. Wait.”_ These were the last clear words that Pepper heard, before the lack of power disrupted the line.

The words were becoming garbled, but Pepper thought she could hear two other voices along with Tony’s - a young boy’s, and another man’s.

Not for the first time, Pepper thought about what she might find, as she followed Tony’s homing signal. Who was he with? Aliens, maybe? Human-sounding aliens, who meant her and Tony harm?

But she pushed such bleak thoughts out of her head. She focused on the best-case scenario. Tony was around. Tony was alive, and safe, and coming for her.

That was why she was completely blindsided when a round golden portal opened up and swallowed her whole.

***

She opened her eyes as soon as she felt the back of her armor strike metal.

The golden portal had vanished. She was no longer in space.

She was on her back on the floor of what appeared the be the Q-ship.

Her suit had decided the air inside he ship was safe to breathe, so the nanobots that made up her faceplate dissolved.

In a heartbeat, Tony was kneeling beside her, in the camo outfit he had worn to their jogging session at the park, that morning.

She reached up to touch his face, and Tony grasped her armored hand.

Tony was here. He was safe. Unhurt.

There was also a young boy here. Also unhurt. He knelt beside her, on the other side.

“H-hi…Ms. Potts,” he greeted shyly, raising one hand. “I’m Peter. And uh…” He pointed to something at the other end of the room. “…that’s Doctor Strange.”

There was a person sitting up against a wall of the spaceship. A human. A man.

The man who had appeared to her and Tony at the park earlier that day.

His cloudy blue eyes conveyed pain to her. From where Pepper lay, it looked like he was laboring to breathe.

Pepper sat up immediately.

“Is he all right?” she asked.

_“He is in shock,”_ TADASHI answered. _“His physiology reflects signs of torture. His adrenaline is up and his blood pressure is dangerously low.”_

No one else could have heard that. Pepper decided not to waste any more time.

She rushed to his side, grasped his wrists.

His hands were badly scarred and shaking. Was this from the torture?

“Look at me,” she commanded.

He obeyed.

She wasn’t completely aware of how her armor worked yet, but she had a firm grip on the basics.

_“Initiating First Aid protocol,”_ TADASHI announced.

Tiny needles emerged from the palms of her armor, sank into Doctor Strange’s skin.

Strange grunted in pain.

_It’s going to be okay, _Pepper’s eyes said to him.

He held her gaze, and seemed to nod, as if he understood.

In a matter of seconds, TADASHI’s First Aid protocol had flooded him with the necessary stabilizing drugs. Strange leaned back and breathed a long, shuddering sigh, as the medicine swiftly took effect.

***

As Strange recovered, Tony took Pepper aside and explained as much as he could:

There was an entity called Thanos. He was after six things called the Infinity Stones. Strange was the holder of one of those Stones - it was magically sealed inside the necklace around his neck.

Because Thanos’ lieutenant, the pilot of the Q-ship, couldn’t get the stone, he got Strange instead. Tony and Peter Parker (“the Kid,” as he had been affectionately dubbed) had followed Strange and his abductor into the Q-ship (the “donut ship,” as Tony so lovingly called it).

They had just defeated the lieutenant and were thinking of what to do next. Having Pepper suddenly drop in on them was certainly not something they’d expected to factor in.

“I couldn’t come get you because my suit wasn’t made for space travel, either,” Tony sheepishly admitted. “Neither was his.” He pointed to Peter, who was worriedly hovering over Doctor Strange, whose eyes were closed as he sat slumped against the wall.

“You’re saying…he was the one who picked me up?” she asked. “In his condition?”

Tony nodded. Strange could open portals to apparently anywhere, he disclosed. It was easy for him.

“Tony,” Pepper said slowly, sternly, “if he could open a portal to anywhere, why didn’t you have him portal you back to me as soon as you were out of danger?”

Tony floundered for an answer. In the end he decided on making light of it: “Is this still about the restaurant reservation we had to postpone? Are you still mad about that?”

Pepper shut her eyes tight. No, no, she wasn’t going to lose her cool in this faraway place. Even if her fiancé had the uncanny ability to push all her buttons at the _worst possible times_.

“Please don’t tell me you actually want to be here,” she said dejectedly. “_Please_ don’t tell me you have a plan.”

“I do, as a matter of fact, have a plan,” he answered, downcast. “But…I don’t think I should tell you. I don’t want to make you any more mad at me than you already are.”

She had a myriad of reactions to this. The first was getting downright angry. At feeling like she was facing a _child_, instead of a life partner from whom she _needed_ and _deserved_ only the truth.

The second was to feel alone. Even if she knew she shouldn’t.

There was so much Tony didn’t know. So much that she hadn’t said.

So much she was keeping to herself.

“It doesn’t matter,” she said quietly, holding back tears, in spite of herself. “Okay? I’m here now. I’m coming with you. Wherever you’re going. If it’s back to Earth or anywhere else, I won’t leave you.”

“No.”

The word didn’t come from Tony. Or from the Kid.

It came from Strange.

He was awake. Fully conscious. Still a little weak, but it seemed the nanobots had finished dealing with the worst of it.

“No?” Pepper frowned. “I’m sorry, has anyone asked for your opinion?”

“You can’t come with us,” Strange stressed between hard breaths. “Your armor is already severely compromised. You won’t survive a confrontation, if one will arise.”

“I can,” Pepper quietly countered, stepping up closer to Strange. “My armor may not be built for more than this, but _I_ am.” She turned to Tony. “And you can fix my suit…right?”

“Honey,” Tony bleakly answered, “I have nothing to fix it with. All this is alien tech. Even if the Kid and I put our heads together, we may not have enough time to figure out which of this is compatible with Earth tech.”

“She must be back on Earth before this ship reaches its destination,” Strange said.

“Finally, Doc, something we agree on,” Tony snorted. “If you got her here from space via magic…you can magic her back to Earth, right?”

Strange nodded.

Pepper approached Strange, crouched down to face him.

She could sense his sincerity in wanting her safe. “I’ll be fine,” she assured him.

“You have to be,” he said to her gently. “Not just for yourself. Or him.”

This gave her pause.

She suddenly understood.

“You know,” she whispered, “don’t you?”

“Know what?” Tony demanded, stepping up closer to them.

_It’s not my place to tell,_ the look in Strange’s eyes said.

Both Tony and Pepper understood it right away. And it fascinated Pepper.

Strange didn’t even need to speak. Before now, she thought only she and Tony had such a connection…

And theirs had been cultivated through years of fights, misunderstandings and awkward apologies.

This guy…this guy just appeared in a park in New York.

Took one look at them, and dragged them all into something that went way over their heads.

And told her, without saying a word, that it was time to let go of a secret.

“Tony,” she said after taking a long, deep breath, “I’m pregnant.”

***

This set off a full-blown anxiety attack in Tony. It took several minutes of him rambling and trying to even out the rhythm of his breathing again, before they could resume a proper conversation.

Pepper had said just earlier that day that she wasn’t pregnant. She had _said_.

“I wanted to keep it secret until after the wedding,” she confessed. “I knew you’d short circuit. Like you’re doing now. And nothing’s going to get done.”

“But it’s me,” Tony argued miserably. “It’s us.”

_I’m sorry,_ her entire body said to him. And he accepted it. He would forgive her anything.

And, in the end, it was good news. The best. He wrapped the woman he loved in his arms and tried to tell himself this.

No way in hell was he letting the universe end now.

“I’ll send her back,” Strange assured him. “And the Kid, too.”

Strange speaking up seemed to calm him down a bit more, for which Pepper was grateful.

“No, the Kid stays!” the Kid objected. “Please, Mr. Stark. We’ve come this far.”

There was a touch of worry in Strange’s face as he heard Peter talk. He knew something else about Peter Parker, Pepper could see it - she just couldn’t tell what it was.

Pepper immediately recognized that It was weird, how well she could read him, and vice versa. They had only known each other for a few minutes.

And she knew that it mattered that Strange didn’t override Peter’s objection. Tony might have put up a fight, but Strange was the one opening the portal back to Earth - and he said the Kid could stay.

“If you can send me back, you can do the same to all three of you,” Pepper said to Strange. “Come back safe. I want to owe you for his life.”

He nodded, looking straight into her eyes with a promise:

_I’ll send him home to you and your child. You have my word._


End file.
